58 Responses to “Thought for the day”

This , as much as being an opportunity to increase leases etc. Might just be the time to put out a hand of friendship to your fellow Fijians to bring this coup to an abrupt halt .
Everyone in Fiji now , should lobby the U.N. for peace keepers to come to Fiji and international Police to arrest Frank and Co.

Opportunist chiefs abound. Ra chief Bolobolo says to forget the past and move on. I say no way as it will not bring justice to the crime of treason. Bua chiefs agree to send delegates to BNT. This is the sort of thing that perpetuates the ig’s cling onto power. If only there was unity and unanimity amongst the chiefs this coup would have folded and assigned to the scrap heap long ago. These people have shown their true colors and we should be wary of the same when everything gets back to normal as they will surely suck up to whoever takes up the mantle of power.

MM, lobby too should be made to the NZ govt to take back their citizens who are participating in and propping up this illegal regime. Otherwise place these scums on a blacklist ban to restrict their movement.

I think when it comes to the land issue it would be the cane farmers who will suffer the most. Fijians will have their land back and will be able to live off it. The land could also be used for other development other than sugar. This will also drive the landowners to work their land instead of being imprisoned in a hand out mentality. Change is inevitable and its better to face it now than later when things might get even worse.

“”””SOUTH African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said today that ^^^^^ @@@@ ****** must step down or be removed by force.

“I think now that the world must say: ‘You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross violations, and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step down’,” Archbishop Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner, told Dutch current affairs TV programme Nova.

Asked if Mr ^^^^, who has been in power since ???, should be removed by force, ArchbishopTutu said: “Yes, by force – if they say to him: step down, and he refuses, they must do so militarily.””””””

Yes it was the basket case, Zimbabwe.

I wonder if there is a bishop in the Pacific region who would make a similar call against the terrible tyrant, bananasinpyjamas?

peace pipe, happy anniversary for today !
I agree and i also think it’s time that all soldiers and their relatives be banned from travelling through Australian and new Zealand ports as well as all relatives of those black listed already from this Silly Regime . It’s time to turn the heat up high before Fiji is absolutely crucified to the cross !
You should all lobby those governments and for the un to return Fijian peace keeping troops .
The money they make , just isn’t important anymore .

I wonder if the Fiji Indo will now get together and kick Chodoray azz out of their lives. I am so glad that this is finally happening and the Eu is withholding the so-called sugar cane subsidy or loan as Chodory has been bluffing the cane Farmers. Chodory has been making money out of the stupidity of the uneducated Cane Farmers. He would have money deducted directly from the Farmers Cane payments for his own use i have never seen an accounting of the amount deducted and what the money was used for etc,etc,.
I have told my Big Brother Budhau and our BIG DADA ,that when you are a guest in once home, you follow the homeowners rule and be thanksful, that he was kind enough to invites you to his house?
Alway, respect your host and thank him for allowing you his kindness to abide,eat his food,drink his water and sleep in his home.
I told Budhau, that this is not your home and respect the Fijian as they have been nice to our ancestors in allowing them to live here in harmony,peace,prosperity and goodwill. Do not try to take over a house that is not yours? The British has a saying about “a mans house is his castle”.Maybe mass evictions would be the only thing that needs to be done before these idiots cane Farmers can open their eyes to the bullshyte Chodo has been giving us for the last 35 years?

I agree completely with Peace Pipe above and the same can be said for those accepting positions from this illegal government. One of the common reasons for accepting the position is to move fiji forward – my quaetion to them – is where is forward and how long it will take? It only took LQ and his team a year before general elections were called. What now – people need to look within them and be honest – the view by some that those accepting such illegal appointments are “waca” and are now trying to find a job that will at least keep them enjoying their life in a bubble.

If u wana a good laugh fellas then read Lewensky’s economic growth for Fiji due too good leadership for the last 2 years under baini puaka n chorodo!!!

Two years on, ‘Fiji has achieved great growth’ say’s Leweni
05/12/2008
The interim Government has taken a series of crucial measures needed to build a better Fiji for all, two years after the military takeover, it said.

In a statement released today, Government spokesman Major Neumi Leweni said much development in key sections of the economy have taken place.

“Since its two years in office Government has laid a solid foundation which was lacking for sustainable economic growth underpinned by strong and sensitive leadership ,” he said.

Adding from 2007 – 2008 Government has made considerable progress particularly in consolidating the public finances and in arresting the deteriorating fiscal imbalances, brought about through several years of mismanagement, he said.

Government he said, achieved this through policies and measures such as curbing consumption, reducing salary in the public sector, reducing the size of government and imposing import duties on a wide range of luxury items.

On the elections, Leweni stressed Government’s vision of an all inclusive society which is continuously promoted by the Draft Peoples Charter in Building a Better Fiji for all.

“This coupled with the appointment of Constituency Boundaries Commission, the Supervisor of Elections and most importantly Electoral reforms that focuses on doing away with race based politics which has, for decades not only divided the two major races but has prevented Fiji from achieving its economic potential.”

On housing, Leweni said alleviating poverty through the provision of adequate shelter to destitute families and their dependents is one of Government’s priority areas where a total of $2.5 million was utilized for resettlement programmes.

This he said saw the resettlement of Rawaiqa Housing Residents to Waila 3b subdivision while other housing project areas are Namosau in Ba and Field 40 in Lautoka.

Those who support the soldiers , relatives or no , are as responsible for Fiji’s demise at home and in the International arena !
Desmond Tutu had the intestinal fortitude ( balls ) to stand up to screaming raving mob of blacks trying to set a man on fire with a care tyre around his neck . He saved the man .
The only men who comes close to him in Fiji are Mr.Qarase and the man who stood alone in a street holding a banner for Democracy recently . Everyone else is a pussy it seems .

For those who watch ‘Make it Count’ on TV on Tuesday and Friday nights this was what Jon Jon said to our very own Rasta, Nasoni – it was so funny – vinaka JJ for that light moment – God only knows we need a really good laugh. You Go Nasoni!

Of course major disaster can only be referring to the ig coupsters and the military who are the only ones in Fiji to benefit from their treasonous coup since 5.12.06.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how the once penniless voreqe and his ig coupsters have suddenly acquired homes, vechicles, all sorts of assets and heaven knows what else for themselves and their families since that fateful day 5.12.06. All the accoutrements hasn’t made any change to the recipients of the tamani size theft – they’re all still fuglier than ever and still have NO CLASS.! You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear

Then there’s the huge bonisi for all soldiers from the most junior to voreqe bhai – chichi – kania vinaka sara nai lavo ni Vanua, qai macala ni tadola nomuni wawa – uh huh. Yeah – I can see those smarmy army wives shopping at Tappoos and Sogos for Christmas – they won’t be going to Chotobhais for their hair straigtening products, bula shirts or jabas this year – SA YAWA! Hey I hope they enjoy their ill gotten gains while they can.

BTW can anyone find out who that ignoramus is preaching all that shit in high decibels around the Mead Road area – or is it coming straight from delainabua hq? This guys brand of lotu must be heard to be believed – first the kaisi shrieks libellously about the SDL into his microphone and a whole lot of other bullshit that has nothing to do with spiritualism. He also breaches the copyright act BIGTIME by putting words to music by local and overseas bands. Could he be the cockeyed pig tele nis brother who benefitted from tele nis $250,000 bonus for not following up the SDLs complaint to the police? That’s the problem with these people from Vatoa – too much inbreeding has resulted in aliens. I’m sure Ratu Loco can hear it from Kalabu it’s that loud.

@SOF – Thank God not all of Fiji is gullible. I’ve heard there are weird goings on with families of the ig coupsters. So be it!

From Fiji SUN
President Iloilo could have relied on “Biketawa Declaration” to confront Bainimarama’s coup on 5 December 2006

By VICTOR LAL

Two years to the day, on 5 December 2006, Commodore Frank Bainimarama went up to the Government House and told the President and his commander-in-chief Ratu Josefa Iloilo, “If you are not going to sack the Prime Minister, I will take over the executive authority”. According to the President’s official secretary, Rupeni Nacewa, the President said in Fijian, ‘vinaka vakalevu’, which means ‘thank you very much’. But deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has fiercely contested the true interpretation of the above remarks in a counter-affidavit before the Fiji High Court.
Nacewa, in his affidavit, also claimed that Bainimarama told Ratu Iloilo that he (Ratu Iloilo) should remain in residence at Government House. “The Commander said that he would hand back Executive Authority as soon as he had done what needed to be done, such as dissolve Parliament, et cetera,” said Nacewa. The Commander then took control of the Government on 5 December 2006.
During the hearing before the High Court, one of the judges rightly asked what President Iloilo was supposed to do on the morning of 5 December, let the country “go to the dogs”. Yes, what was the President supposed to do? He should have, countered Qarase’s lawyer and now an Australian High Court judge, Nye Perram, found his solution to the crisis within the Constitution of Fiji.
The President, I would submit, should have remained steadfast to the legal advice that he had received, and had accepted, from his deputy, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, that under the Constitution, the President did not have the authority to sack the PM, other than for what is prescribed in the Constitution. Ratu Joni further advised that Ratu Iloilo could not use the Doctrine of Necessity as the reason or basis for sacking Qarase as PM, because the real conflict existed between the Government and the Military.
It is now clear that for the military to have achieved its avowed objective, it had to eject Ratu Joni from the Vice-Presidency, even though the appointing body, the Great Council of Chiefs, had made it plainly clear that the Council recognised both Ratu Iloilo and Ratu Joni as legitimate holders of their respective offices. The next day, on 6 December, Ratu Joni was dismissed from office. What emerges from Nacewa’s affidavit is that the President had, either under duress or in collusion, quietly allowed the demise of constitutional government provided he was returned as Head of State at a future date.
One is reminded of the drama at Government House during the Rabuka coups of 1987, when Sitiveni Rabuka went up to Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, the then Governor-General and his traditional overlord, and begged him, “to please distance yourself to see what it is we as your subjects can do to take over leadership of this land and the Fijian people until such time as we think that you should be invited to resume leadership in a position which is rightfully yours and which was bestowed upon you by our Father and God Almighty”.
Ratu Penaia, the Queen’s legal representative in Fiji, initially, went along with the usurpation of power by Rabuka and his avowedly racist bunch of supporters, and is reported to have said, “Good luck” and “I hope you know what you are doing”, and asked Rabuka if he still had his (G-G’s) job. Rabuka told him: “Yes, Sir, but I would ask that you stay here with full pay and all your privileges and honours that go with your office, until we ask you to come back as President.”
Ratu Penaia also continued to commit other undemocratic acts, for example, he pardoned Rabuka and his officers for staging a “bloodless” coup, and accepted the recommendations of the Constitutional Review Committee that urged the acceptance of a racially-biased Constitution which relegated Indo-Fijians to second class citizenry. However, Ratu Penaia was finally talked into confronting Rabuka’s coup by the former Chief Justice Sir Timoci Tuivaqa and his fellow judges (Justices Mishra, Tikaram, Kearsley, Rooney, Govind and Sheehan).
In September 1987 Rabuka executed his now famous second coup supposedly to fulfil his initial objective, “Fiji for i-taukei Fijians”. Ratu Penaia again resisted saying “It will take lions to move me out of here” but in the end went along with Rabuka after being lured to return as President of the future Republic of Fiji, alongside Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara as his Prime Minister who famously remarked, “Fellow citizens, let me assure you that I am not an opportunist”.
Their appointments and the declaration of a republic ended the links with the British monarchy, and as I will argue in the next analysis, so did the “reserve power” or royal prerogative which Ratu Iloilo is claimed to have exercised on 5 December 2006. It is worth pointing out that during the 1987 crisis, Ratu Joni was also kept out of the Great Council of Chiefs deliberations, for he was suspected of having sympathies with the deposed Bavadra government, and was opposed to the 1987 coups.
Meanwhile, we see similar echoes in Nacewa’s affidavit where Ratu Iloilo allegedly remarked “Vinaka vakalevu”, and to Ratu Penaia’s “Good luck”. While Ratu Iloilo seemed to have quietly slipped into the background after Ratu Joni’s forced departure, and did not re-emerge until 4 January, Bainimarama was now running around “wearing the President’s borrowed shoes”. Like Ratu Penaia before him, what alternatives did Ratu Iloilo have before him? Did he continue to have access to legal advice? Did he voluntarily or was forcefully told to handover his “presidential shoes” and to remain quiet until 4 January 2007? Why did it take him so long to address the people, in whose public interest he is supposed to have acted on 5 December?
When I began analysing the High Court judgment, I had declared at the outset that after obtaining the affidavits of Qarase and others which barely featured in the judgment delivered on 9 October 2008, I was now totally revising my earlier series of analysis. In the past weeks, a more clear and comprehensive picture has emerged, supplemented by additional legal analysis, which convincingly concludes that the military had no right to create a crisis, and then march onto Government House, and demand that the President dismiss the SDL-FLP multi-party government.
I must admit that once I had managed to obtain the various affidavits, and re-read extensively judgments from other jurisdictions, and on coup-infected countries, I did not hesitate to revise my initial analysis of the Fiji coup and its aftermath, reminding myself of an African proverb: “Until lions have their own historians, the tale of hunt will always glorify the hunter.” In Fiji’s case, we initially only had to go by Bainiramama’s takeover speech of 5 December 2006 and the handover of executive authority speech of 4 January 2007, and the stream of reports produced by the Fiji Human Rights Commission which endorsed the coup and the after events stemming from it.
Since the 5 December coup, we have been repeatedly told that Qarase had allegedly invited Australia and New Zealand to provide military intervention under the Biketawa Declaration, which authorizes regional intervention into the affairs of Fiji. Nacewa, in his affidavit had claimed that Qarase failed to inform the President that the 16 Pacific Island Forum of Foreign ministers had met to discuss invoking the Biketawa Declaration. Bainimarama cited it in his handover speech of 4 January, saying the consideration of foreign intervention was viewed by the RFMF to be a serious threat to Fiji’s sovereignty and independence. Qarase has denied having invited intervention. He said he had made an inquiry on the extent and type of assistance.
On 31 March 2008, when the High Court had gone into recess to write its judgment, the Fiji Human Rights Commission brought out its own report entitled “Special Investigations Report: Australian intervention in Fiji in October- November 2006- an issue of international law”. The Report gave a detailed chronology which it presented as evidence, and observed that the serious issues raised by its special investigation required a firm international legal response given the breach of international law represented by these events.
The Report noted that on 2 November, Australian opposition spokesman (now Prime Minister), Kevin Rudd, in an interview requested that relevant provisions of the Biketawa Declaration be ‘activated’ to deal with the ‘possibility of a military coup in Fiji’. Rudd called upon Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer to ‘activate these provisions of the Biketawa Declaration and convene an emergency meeting of Pacific Island Foreign Ministers’. Rudd said, ‘the time has come to use this mechanism. Let’s get on with it’.
The FHRC claimed that the UN Declaration on the Non-Use of Force 1988 is also pertinent in light of a decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Judgment delivered June 27 1986). In this case the respondent was the United States. The Court ruled in favour of Nicaragua. “While this complaint to the ICJ contained issues of a very serious nature, the developing jurisprudence of the ICJ is relevant to establishing the parameters and rationale of foreign intervention in a wide range of situations,” said the FHRC Report.
In Fiji, said the FHRC, “given the chronology of events in October-December 2006 which is provided in the first part of this Special Investigations Report, there needs to be an independent assessment of whether the Australian government complied with its international obligations towards Fiji pursuant to the United Nations Charter. Furthermore, there needs to be an assessment of whether any of the provisions of the Biketawa Declaration would have been available at all to Australia as Opposition Spokesman Kevin Rudd claimed on November 2”.
And, “Whether they were available prior to a meeting of the Pacific Foreign Ministers scheduled for early December is also a pertinent question. The Biketawa Declaration may have been mis-applied by Australia to intervene unilaterally in a sovereign Pacific State. In any event, the substantive provisions of the Biketawa Declaration should be read consistently with its Preamble that Forum Leaders would respect the
principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of another member State”.
What the FHRC omitted to mention is that in 1998, the United Nations welcomed, if not authorised, when the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) forces restored by force, the first democratically elected President of Sierra Leone, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who had been forced into exile in neighbouring Guinea following a military coup in May 1997 till March 1998. Kabbah’s government was revived nine months later as the military-rebel junta was removed by troops of the ECOWAS, under the command of the Nigerian led forces. He went on to win yet another term in office in the presidential election.
It was the second time in recent years that force was used to restore a democratically elected government. In 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first freely elected president in 200 years of Haiti’s independence, was overthrown in a bloody military coup. He sought exile in the United States where he campaigned against Haiti’s new military rulers. His efforts paid off and he was reinstated in 1994 when the military rulers were forced to step down under international pressure and with the help of 20,000 troops, most of them American.
Like Astride before him, many international lawyers, democracy and human rights activists and elected governments and UN agencies had welcomed Kabbah’s re-instatement as a salutary milestone towards an enforceable right of democratic governance, and that the international community is willing to regard a body rather than the military-cum civilian government as more truly representative of the state. Some international law commentators saw the restoration of President Astride in 1994 as the international community’s willingness “to defend democratic institutions by insuring that democracy prevails in states which have been shaken by violent, illegal and unpopular coups”.
What about the issue of Haiti’s sovereignty, an issue much bandied about in Fiji in regard to the Biketawa Declaration? One international legal scholar argued in 1995: “In modern international law, what counts is the sovereignty of the people and not a metaphysical abstraction called the state. If the de jure government, which was elected by the people, wants military assistance, how is its sovereignty violated? And if the purpose of the coercion is to reinstate a de jure government elected in a free and fair election after it was ousted by a renegade military, whose sovereignty is being violated? The miliatry’s? Multilateral intervention in Haiti, in short, did not violate but in fact vindicate Haitian sovereignty – a term appropriately identified with the wishes of Haiti’s people.”
The same commentator stated that, “In circumstances in which free elections are internationally supervised and the results are internationally endorsed as free and fair and the people’s choice is clear, the world community does not need to speculate what constitutes popular sovereignty in that country.” We may recall that both the UN and the Commonwealth observer groups had declared the 2006 general elections free and fair, and even the Fiji Labour Party had gone on to become a part of the SDL-FLP multi-party government, a clear manifestation that it had accepted the election result outcome. The party only changed its tune after the coup, and following the highly questionable Fiji Human Rights Commission report into the 2006 general elections.
Meanwhile, the international legal commentators saw in Kabbah’s restoration to office a likely template for regional organizations to respond to invitations to restore elected governments illegally ousted by military coups. While the UN did not authorise the use of force in Sierra Leone to restore Kabbah, it did not criticize ECOWAS intervention or declare its use of force illegal, conveying the impression that it tacitly disapproved of a military junta which had usurped power at the barrel of a gun and with the help of undemocratic elements of the populace.
Let us return to the Biketawa Declaration. Could Ratu Iloilo have relied on the Biketawa Declaration when Bainimarama went up to him at 11am and demanded, “If you are not going to sack the Prime Minister, I will take over the executive authority”? In my submission, both deposed Prime Minister Qarase and President Ratu Iloilo had recourse to invite foreign military intervention, as illustrated in the Astride-Kabbah cases.
The RFMF, as I have argued, had no right under the Constitution to insert itself, and eventually, to overthrow another legitimate organ of the state, and than go on to confine Qarase on Mavana on grounds of national security, a security crisis which was unleashed by the military coup. The Constitution, I argued, had supremacy over the Military Act. We must not forget that it was the military which precipitated the crisis and then went on to obtain from the President (whether by persuasion or coercion) the validation of its actions.
In its judgment the Fiji High Court, while upholding the President’s actions, recalled the observations of Haynes P in Mitchell v DPP, saying like in Grenada, there was no suggestion in Fiji that the Head of State was confronted with a situation of mere awkwardness and inconvenience. The crisis was real. In Mitchell, Haynes P observed: “We, in the jurisdictions with written constitutions of the Westminster model realise that the Constitution does not and cannot provide for every political situation that might arise. It does not provide for extra-constitutional situations like this one at all. We, in the Caribbean judiciary must do so. We cannot find the solution in English cases. We ought not to look to English judges to decide it for us.”
What the Fiji High Court judgment didn’t observe was that the case of Mitchell went much closer to prescribing a form of democratic legitimacy, with Haynes P. declaring that a revolutionary regime should not be accorded legitimacy unless the court is satisfied that the people are behind it and with it. Legality, Haynes P. stated, should only be achieved if and when the people approve and accept, “for in them lies political sovereignty”. In other words, Haynes P. insisted that not only the people’s acceptance, but also their approval, must be ascertained before legality can be bestowed upon any government. Well, applying Mitchell, neither the President nor his military subject Commodore Bainimarama consulted the people between 5 December 2006 and 4 January 2007 while they were stepping in and out of the “presidential shoes”.
Again, what could the President have done, “let the country go to the dogs”? He, or his independent legal advisers, if he had access to them, could have turned towards that spice island of Grenada, and to the actions of Sir Paul Scoon, the Governor-General and Queen’s representative on that island state, who had his own version of the “Biketawa Declaration” to fall back on following a military coup, when Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, some members of his cabinet and other trusted associates were brutally murdered.
On Tuesday, 25 October 1983 heavily armed contingents of United States Rangers and Marines, supported by personnel from the Jamaican and Barbados armed forces, invaded Grenada, and despite condemnation from the United Nations, overthrew those who had seized power.
Sir Paul had issued an “invitation” to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) along with the Governments of the United States of America, Jamaica and Barbados to come to the assistance of the people of Grenada. The OECS or “The Treaty of Basseterre”, was signed on 18 June 1981 by the Caribbean states, and came into operation on 4 July 1981. Sir Paul later recalled: “Of all the political systems, I give my vote to democracy without any reservations.”
We do not know whether President Iloilo flirted with the “Biketawa Declaration” but it was one of two options open to him; the other was his own resignation. Whatever he thought on 5 December, he did not have the “reserve power” to handover his “presidential shoes” to Bainimarama on 5 December 2006, two years to the day. Like the “Indian Rope Trick”, the royal prerogative had disappeared from Fiji when the country had declared herself a republic in October 1987, severing all links with the British Crown. The President had to act within the 1997 Constitution of Fiji.

Moving Fiji Forward? Care to comment messrs Bainimarama, Shameen(s), Samis, Bubba, Pryde, Gates, the Orange Dove-tail Scutt?
Such alumini! Such collective intellect! Such brain power!. Such concern for the way the world should be!. Such a record to be proud of. Except that natural plate tectonics have moved Fiji a damn sight further forward than you ever will.
Lest we forget? Very few will!. Collectively you are responsible and accountable.

Bainimarama made a deal with Rabuka, Savua and Ganilau when they removed Tui Nayau. Nailatikau hijacked that deal and named himself PM with Bainimarama’s blessings.

George Speight got wind of Nailatikau’s treachery and threatened to kill his wife, Adi Koila. Nailatikau then backed down and Tarakinikini advised Bainimarama to let the GCC find a middle route.

The GCC appointed Ratu Iloilo and immediately he was hounded by Savua’s group, by Rabuka’s group, by Nailatikau’s group and by Speights group all demanding that their choice of PM be approved.

A number of senior officers in the advsiory council including Col Kacisolomone, Kaukimoce amongst others then brought up the name of Qarase who was perceved as an outsider at the time. He had nothing to do with the coup.

After Qarase was chosen as PM, Rabuka tried to punchout Bainimarama’s card. No honour amongst thieves. In the ensuing fracas, Tabua and Kalounivale were murdered. These men were the head sheds at parliament who were receiving the orders from QEB for the black operation on the 19th of May.

There was no deal between Qarase and Bainimarama except that all the coup people should be charged and convicted, but not Bainimarama and his guys. Thats why an immunity decree was done for Bainimarama and his guys.

That decree was later found to be unconstitutional as a result of the Chandrika Prasad case.

Now its Bainimarama’s turn to be investigated and he can’t accept it.
He is misusing the military to prevent due process from being implemented against him, Pita Driti, Naivalurua, Keteca, Savua, Nailatikau, Ganilau and all the other lower ranks including Fabiano and Komaitai who led the killings and murders at QEB on the afternoon of the mutiny.

Baleidrokadroka and othyer officers have tendered statements to the Police which are first hand accounts of what transpired and Bainimarama is the key man behind everything that has happened since 2000, including Chaudary’s removal.

He authorised the use of the CRWU for that operation and he directed the provision of arms and resupply to them from the 21st to the 23rd of may 2000 and he also allowed them the continued use of their facilities at QEB for six weeks from the 19th of May 2000.

There is a lot more to this than meets the eye.

Bainimarama had threatened to tell all since 2003, but he hasn’t said anything because there is nothing there accept lies and deceit and murder.

That dude Lewinsky is a dopey…We are not stupid..Everybody knows that since the coup of December 2006, the economy has declined and will continue to do so until an democratically govenment is elected.. The thing is these fools at Nabua do not understand simple economics. Investors will only come in when there is a stable government not a militarily led one. More investors will lead to more job oppotunities will then more tax revenue for the government which in turn fund necessary infrastructue development, healthcare, education etc. The overall effect of it will trickle down to us ordinary people. To boast about the so called UN Mission bringing in the necessary revenue for the govenmrnt is nonsense… All of them should understand that they are suffocating the Fiji economy right now and the only way to stabilise the economy, cut the crap, surrender the arms, go to barracks, election asap and charge Bainimarama for treason….

sorry for the digression, finally, people are doing something…BETTER LATE THEN NEVER!! congratulations to Sv for not giving in so easily, more people are trying to get into the same boat as u….read on, from fijilive….

Eight prominent non-government organizations and political parties have launched a Movement for Democracy in Fiji to campaign for early election.

The announcement of the initiative was timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the December 5, 2006 military takeover.

The groups membership include the Fiji National Council of Women, the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, the Fiji Islands Council of Trade Unions, Fijian Teachers’ Association, United People’s Party, the National Federation Party and the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Party. Other organizations are expected to join.

The founders of the organization have also established a fund for the Restoration of Democracy.

They signed an agreement in Suva this week containing the rules for the establishment and operations of the Fund.

“A priority is to hasten the holding of elections leading to the formation of a government with a popular mandate. The FRD also aims to contribute to the cost of specific legal challenges against the 2006 coup and the interim regime,” a statement from the group said.

@ Adi Kaila: You’re absolutely right!. What’s sad is that I’ve just watched Frost on AlJazeera discussing Zimbabwe. So much commonality between the two regimes. Lies, patronage, nepotism, born-to-rule attitudes. Both coming out with all the usual cliches like Frank’s “you dun unnastan” crap and Mugabe blaming the entire Western world (all the while pocketing the remaining resources and doing whatever he can to cling desperately to power). Frank’s problem is that people understand all to well.

for threatening so many times to overthrow a Democratically Elected Government .
Frank was also under investigation for his alleged role , if any , in the murders of the CRW soldiers in 2000 , several more citizens have probably been added to that list since 5th. of December , 2006 !
And wasn’t it on the 5th. of December 2006 , that the Australian helicopter pilot was blown out of the waters off Nadi :-http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/australian-pilot-dies-in-fiji-crash/2006/12/06/1165081016537.html

because he was flying Ministers to the outer Islands and because he flew Mr Qarase over Military road blocks , hence evading Frank’s pathetic little planned attempt to have Mr Qarase detained .
Had Frank succeeded in detaining Mr Qarase , he could have asked the President to declare a State of Emergency , stating as the reason , the Government can’t function because the Prime Minister would have been under house arrest and unable to perform his duties !
Had the pilot not gone over the Military roadblock , Mr Qarase would have been detained by Frank’s crew , Frank would have run to the President saying that the Prime Minister was under house arrest and that the Government can’t function , a State of Emergency would have been declared legally and then and only then , Frank could have declared Martial Law , legally .
But Mr Qarase was too smart for the Military unintelligence and simply flew over the Military roadblocks . Frank’s answer to that , might have been to order the helicopter and the pilot , blown up !
But that is just my theory and when you consider that explosives were taken from the gold mine some 2 weeks earlier by people unknown , it’s a plausible (sensible and possibly correct ) theory !
It’s good to hear that groups are gathering speed in opposing Frank and Co. but i would love to see included in that challenge , an attempt to have those responsible for the coup , be held financially accountable for the challenge also .
I believe their properties and any monies taken from the Government and people of Fiji , be returned to the people , including their partners , children’s and associates .

I’m trying really hard to understand how this regime and the police think , or don’t think !
The Chief Justice was removed under false charges and replaced by a puppet of the Regime .
A man accused of grabbing a 15 year old boys scrotum because he spoke to the man’s Daughter , is told he has been disrespectful to a Magistrate by putting his fingers up at her in a defying gesture when sentenced to 4 or 5 years jail for the offence .
Personally , I feel that the Regime has been equally disrespectful to the Courts , the Justice and the people of Fiji , yet nothing is said and the Police see no comparison , despite the fact that the Chief Justice is innocent .
The Police should focus on doing their job , arresting those responsible for the murders of the CRW soldiers in 2000 and the many innocent Citizens murdered , tortured and detained by this Regime since December the 5th . 2006 , and stop trying to lecture the public on how to treat the Judiciary .
What a hypocritical bunch of morons they are !

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=108166
This bloke is an absolute peanut brain !
He was he to choose an Interim Prime Minister in the 1st. place ?
Some guy came up to me and said , this bloke will do , and I said , oh yeah , okay , that sounds good to me ?
Again , Frank has confirmed that he is an absolute arse wipe !

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=108170
This self appointed bastion of decency has failed to point out that many abuse cases go unreported because Citizens don’t trust in the Legal System because it is tainted with corruption itself !
However , having said that , I do agree with her summation that Cultural Practises have the potential to allow abuses to be socially acceptable because of the power held by those responsible for administering or interpreting these cultural practises .

MM, as it was major disaster [ aka the bugler ] and the moronic military legal eaglet who ordered at gunpoint that the CJ go on leave, it is only right and fitting that these two fools be made to pay the compensation to the CJ out of their own pockets.

Two years ago from today the nation awoke to a military regime. What will we find when we awake on the same day two years from now – December 6, 2010?

The answer, unfortunately, seems to be: much the same and possibly even worse. There was a lot of hope on that day two years ago even though there was also widespread apprehension concerning the overthrow at gunpoint of an elected government.

Corruption was to end once and for all. It hasn’t and probably never will.

There was finally to be transparency, accountability and good governance in the state of Fiji. There is if anything less of all three than there previously was.

No member of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces was to benefit from this coup. They all have or are about to.

We will produce incontrovertible evidence of corruption in the Qarase regime and we will produce it next week. Two years on we are still waiting and probably will be two years from today.

We will hold an auction of government vehicles. Where are those vehicles today and what condition are they in?

And, of course, we will return the nation to democratic rule through an election no later than March 2009 and the military will accept the outcome no matter what. It is not going to happen.

The list could continue. But as the abandoned pledges mount, the military regime and its puppet cabinet have seen their support level plummet as even ardent coup supporters have turned away. The blatant overspending by the military and its shameless 2009 budget allocation at the expense of the service ministries have left the nation in shock.

The draft People’s Charter “consultation” process has been a charade from the start and will not be taken seriously either at home or abroad.

The military and the interim government have made it abundantly clear that they neither need nor fear public opinion. They are in power, they have the guns and they ain’t moving. Their business class travels take them all over the globe in luxury hotels while the people they purport to serve and protect suffer as the national economy stumbles towards crisis.

And only yesterday what is tantamount to an admission of error in the removal of the then chief justice Daniel Fatiaki has cost those same suffering people a cool $275,000 – plus legal fees, of course.

This has been a coup quite unlike those before it. The military is here to stay and its People’s Charter confirms that. Increasingly we see the signs of a divided nation – the newspeak of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji notwithstanding.

We have a sullen majority suffering in comparative silence while the overlords and their hangers-on have it all their own way. So, again, what will have changed two years from now? Very little, we fear. Who will ever be able to persuade the military to confront the fact that it has made a woeful mess of running the nation? No-one, we fear. Will Fiji have even some semblance of an election before December 6, 2010? Not likely, we fear. Those who can are leaving while those who can’t shrug and get on with their lives as best they can. We have come a long way in the wrong direction since those glowing promises of December 6, 2006. In “moving the country forward” we have gone many miles backwards. Fiji did not deserve this.

The second anniversary of the madman’s coup passed without any major incident. There was not even a whimper from PIF Aust and NZ to say what they will do about it. At least we have started a movement in Fiji to band together. I suggest we add our support to this movement and work together as a united force as Mick Beddoes said together we can be more effective and stronger. This is the time to move.

No thanks Mark M, Fatiaki the recently resigned CJ like others in the judiciary and interim govts after any of the coups breached the law and countinued with their band-aid approaches.

If everyone stuck to moral law, like the former Vice President, Ratu Joni, Rabuka’s coup would have been the first and only coup in Fiji.

Fatiaki is no exceptional. During the Speight 2000 coup, Fatiaki joined former CJ Timoci Tuivaga who is now enjoying retirement and Justice Michael Scott in advising the then President, Mara to abrogate the constitution in accordance with the wishes of the military. Mara refused and resigned, (too late as in the 1987 Rabuka coup Mara backed Rabuka and became interim Prime Minister – same as Qarase) All using the famous “feeble excuse” had to do it to save the country.

Tuivaga, Fatiaki and Scott later recognised the interim military govt of Frank the Crank and went about the band-aid approach of drafting decrees, abrogating the constitution and abolishing the Supreme Court.

These guys gave themselves the power to change the Constitution. Exactly what Frank the Crank’s Gang are trying to do.

CONSTITUTION IS THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND AND IT IS THE CONSTITUION THAT DETERMINES HOW IT SHOULD BE CHANGED.

CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION USING METHODS OUTSIDE IS ILLEGAL AND SHOULD NEVER BE ACCEPTED!

ONLY WAY TO STOP THE COUP CULTURE! MUST NOT OVER STEP THAT LINE!

Fatiaki, like Rabuka, Mara, Tuivaga etc etc got away with it and will enjoy our hard earned money so there is nothing we can do about it – it is how the law is in Fiji. We must keep fighting to put a stop to it.

One feels as if Fatiaki has abandoned the fight for the rule of law for monetary gans – after all, we mustnt forget that he was caught fiddling with his tax, and only paid it up during the amnesty. Now, the way is open for a new CJ. Yes, all these people are a much of greedy ones – its the taxpayers money that he will be living on – he should have waited until the court had ruled on Gates appointment etc

okay , thanks for clarifying everything blaze etc.
so how do you stop this coup coup thing ?
If I was Fijian , I’d be concerned at what it’s doing to the majority and want to find a legal way around the mess .
It seems to me that the cultural ties and the various obligations or perceived obligations between clans and relatives , is actually a pediment to solving the problem !

Mark a good start is to use the chronological order of event to educate the people and not allow them to become too complacent and continue as normal.

We must always question the integrity and ethics of those who succumb to the compromises of politics in our coup ridden nation.

We must educate our youth that even when the country is on the verge of chaos and anarchy the concern for the welfare of the people is the highest law. If any social or political changes are to be made it should only be done through an elected parliament following the correct legal processes.

True
but how do you get around this impasse at the current moment without bloodshed ?
I suggest keep lobbying the International community for support , also , those countries that continue to support illegal regimes , in any country in the world , should pay a price for that support . china for example , should have raw materials with held or shipping disrupted or trade just ceased until they conform to that which is acceptable in the rest of the world . India should be held accountable , as they have disrupted the whole region with their supplying funds for this coup in the 1st. instant . Let India supplement the incomes of the sugar cane farmers , not the European Union . The youth of Fiji , should be crying out to the International Courts , Unions , NGOs , Governments etc. .
After all , it’s their future we’re trying to protect as well as those of the current generation .
20 years of strife by these people , and only a handful have been held accountable , it’s just not cricket is it really ?

Everybody is worried about the EU aid money for Sugar. I am, all my friends on the western side are, MCP is, even Vore the wise and powerful dictator, must be worried.

But what to do? That’s the question. I remember back in the 1970s when there was an impasse between the Alliance and the NFP about proceedings in Parliament. The Speaker, the late RD Patel if my memory serves me correctly, adjourned the House sine die, meaning without any day for meeting again, despite the wishes of the Alliance Government who had the majority to rule hat the house should continue its session. Ratu Mara was overseas at the time and returned to this mess.

The way out of this mess was said to come to Ratu Mara in a dream. He designed a series of motions that would save face for everyone and allow the house to put itself in order again. And apparently it worked. Parliament got on with its business and the country was able to, if you’ll pardon the expression, move forward.

How is this relevant you ask. Well I think I’ve found a way out of the EU aid mess. It came to me in a dream I had about Ratu Mara’s dream.

If an election is held, we can safeguard the EU aid funds (all $350 million of them). While we’re holding the election we can AT THE SAME TIME have a referendum on the Charter. Everyone has heard of it. Most people have had an opportunity to read it in a language they understand. Never has any document been more ready to put to the people.

Parties could take their stand on the document. Any party that opposed the charter while the majority of the people supported it would suffer at the polls. Alternatively, if most people don’t support the charter, parties that support it would suffer at the polls. But the most important thing would be for ALL parties to agree to abide by the result. If the majority of the people support the charter, all parties would vote to make it a part of the constitution.

So let’s go. What are we waiting for? Frank, John Samy, Akuila Yabaki and everyone who loves the Charter and has confidence in the support it has with the people can have no doubts that it will get up. But we would also have the election that will guarantee the money for our sugar farmers. Who could be against this? If the charter is supported the newly elected members of parliament would be honour bound to pass it as an amendment to the constitution.

BTW – excellent summation from Fraenkel on he state of the nation and PacForum on RNZ and poss RNZi.
The Chaudrey debacle has and is changing attitudes too. Hard to admit you’ve been conned and noone wants to fess up to it, but there are a few sugar farmers that might finally be realising that Chaudhrey’s (and his accomplises) motives at the time were less than honourable.
Same goes for Frank – although he’s got the excuse of dim-wittedness. Not so for Yippe-I-Aye, Shameens or the well meaning but deulded orange-footed Scutt, or the closet last bastion of the rule of law Gates. What a bugger aye! Damn nuisance when you back the wrong horse what?
And what’s all this shit about Bubba courting Frank’s loin chops? The guy is a closet hoe just as sure as a certain refugee of the regime is present not 50 yards from me! Poor her – though I’m afraid any sympathy is better placed elsewhere.

Might have been “DATELINE” – I was driving and didn’t catch it all..
I hope the dishonesty of the Yippe-I-Aye is fully recognised in Fiji. Seems to me he might still have a veneer of some sort of respectability. Personally I don’t give a shit about who or what he is but I do give a shit about the lengths of lying, betrayal, bullshit and general crap he goes to (thinking he has the benefit of the gun held by a few he’s probably sucked off down a dark alley) to keep it all going. Same goes for that champion of Human Rights and part time pistol shooter, Bubba fag-hag, ageing hippie wanna be cudda shudda wudda – the imaculate Shaista Shameen!. There’s a Scutt of two dragging on her undercarriage as well at the end of which we’re all likely to find someone they all regard as British justice’s sage: the illustrious Gates. Please people – do us all a favour and indulge in your preoccupations – we at least could be sure you’ll fuck yourselves to death before too long

I just want to try and dissect , what I believe might be part of Fiji’s problems now , in the past and into the future , unless a middle ground is sort .
And this is my belief :-
Indigenous Fijians have land ownership , and so they should !
Indian Fijians , although Citizens of Fiji , don’t have land ownership !
But not all Indigenous Fijians have land ownership either , if I’m not mistaken !
Now , there is only so much land to go around and the population is growing . So what is a fair and equitable way to resolve the land ownership issue . Should indigenous Fijians be expected to hand over their land , no , because if they did , they would end up land-less , like the Aborigines of Australia .
Are the Indian Fijians , as Citizens of Fiji , expectations of land ownership , realistic and fair ? I don’t know !
Should there be an attempt to reach some middle ground ?
Can the Government lease land from the various clans and re-lease it to the Citizens or is that already being done ?
Is Chaudhry just a greedy , power monger who only has his own interests at heart and doesn’t really give a damn about his fellow Indians in Fiji or is there a hidden agenda by the Indians and the Indian Government , to eventually over ride Fijians land rites altogether ?
How can Fijians protect what is theirs , especially when their own can be bought so cheaply ?

Mark: Who do you think Fiji’s future leaders might be? They sure as hell can’t be those whose names we see in very common use.
It needs a new generation as well as those that to date have completely spurned the cargo cultist, opportunist, ideological bullshit artists of its recent history.
The RFMF? Ratu Joni M maybe?
What of the Judiciary? its been so “@#$%” over by a few that have let their good intentions and egos get the better of their judgement. Probably their fear has played a big part too.
Politics? – Beddoes among others maybe.
Academics?. Most of the sensible ones left a long time ago and can only fire pot shots from abroad.
I suppose one good thing is that we’ve got the dysfunctional encircled by the borders we know as Fiji – except that the majority of FIjians have to suffer the buggers trying to rule them in between propping up their own self-interest.
And what of all the opportunist Aussies and NZers? ( Scutts and Prydes among them )? Even the Heffernan who probably thought she’d pull it all together – well there goes one naiive and silly bitch aye?
I guess if you paid da big bucks, ya can’t moan when you find yourself in the manure business, or when you find your career in tatters.
Maybe the likes of Pryde or Heffernan, or the Scutts et al should be inelligible for welfare at home when they take up positions raping other nations

Tim
I was only kidding about the language , as i can get a little carried away myself sometimes !
But as for who will eventually rule Fiji ?
I would hope that from this last coup , that there will be many new candidates with fresh ideas , and maybe a few new Parties as well ( not kava parties Tim ! ) , Political Parties !
There should be women involved , the few Indian leaders who stuck by the Constitution and I hope some of the youth , who are adults after-all !
To get Fiji back on track again , you will need International aid , support and help at Government level . I mean you will need civil servants from Australia , new Zealand etc. who can re-organise the public Service to make sure services are provided efficiently and economically with all the legal requirements being taken care of etc. I think it’s time that your public servants were trained properly . Dismantling the Military seems an attractive and probably a necessary thing to have to at least consider now .
Failing that , you could vote me in as your President ! I think I could do a better job than the current one !
But then so could noddy ! :-

I had hoped Dan Fataiki would stick it out with the honest legal eagles and fight for the return to Democratic Rule for Fiji, but like that other dishonest taroro visanti makrava he has truly gone bona (stinks).

He’ll probably go to Rotuma and build a house to rival the ostentatious one that makrava built with NBF money. Kaltuf!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT.. ?
Its no wonder they kicked him out of the judiciary. He deserved it. Pufter vinaka tiko vei iko, Taniela! I hope this man will disappear & never ever to be seen again in Fiji. Get right out of here you useless rotman. GO SCUMBAG!

Raw Fiji News:::
Daniel Fatiaki’s money bag resignation of bad taste
December 6, 2008
Ex-Chief Justice, Daniel Fatiaki’s resignation may be his only best option for himself and his family but what about the people of Fiji whose judicial rights he once represented is still under siege? While we understand that Fatiaki has a family to feed and all that, so are the rest of the family heads in Fiji. We somehow feel that Fatiaki has opted for the easy way out and in the process has deserted the people of Fiji.

An out of court settlement that involves a very important constitutional matter like the usurption of the CJ’s office is of bad taste. The people of Fiji deserve to know the full details of how Fatiaki and Aiyarse Khaiyum arrived at their $275,000 settlement figure for the sake of transperancy and accountability and Fatiaki also need to explain to the people why he has decided to call it quits with a bag full of taxpayers money. If he was truly a principled man, one would have expected him to stand firm and not bend to the carrots dangled before him by Frank’s junta and to allow judicial due process he once believed in to take its full course.

Somehow, Fatiaki’s action just doesn’t sit well with the whole pursuit of upholding the 1997 Constitution. His resignation can be viewed as a sign of defeat on his part. Others may have the viewpoint that perhaps Fatiaki has no more hope in the 1997 Constitution or maybe that boy Khaiyum has got damning evidence against Fatiaki that he doesn’t want the public to know, hence his choice to settle quickly. Fatiaki might think that Fiji’s current judicial machinery is not independent so where does that leave the masses who are relying on the court processes for their lost justice they rightfully deserve? Some are even saying that Fatiaki has already found a job overseas and will be taking it up next year. Was he driven by material gain and status? Whatever it is, we strongly believe that Fatiaki has abandoned Fiji’s people and has been quite selfish and greedy about it too.

We say that because it is really the masses who have suffered from all these hullabaluu while Fatiaki, Frank and the military regime participants have all profited from this coup. Fatiaki was still enjoying his full pay eventhough he was removed from office 2 years ago and it’s really cheap seeing him walking away with another golden handshake of $275,000 while the real coup sufferers, the common people, are still struggling to feed their family. We think people would be more remorseful and appreciative if Fatiaki had resigned with an explanation without the pay-out. But because he has accepted the money, it has made him no different to other coup beneficiaries.

So this Fatiaki dude did he just sell out. I think FB should should have set aside more money in the budget to buy out a few more of the more prominent holdouts.

..and that Indian hidden agenda – just watch out – they gave out 78 of those permanent residence visas at $3k a piece over the last year – with that kinda numbers, we will soon be run over by these returning Indians.

Two years since the take over and the IG has just gain more porpularity here and abroad. What you bloggers going to do about it!……The answer is nothing!. No one is game enough to stand up to Bai….and his merry man!. Giving your 2 cents worth on every piece of crap posted on this website is not the way to go. After all you just looked upon as some spoilt little shit who need a stick on their backside or up their arse! to stop them from wingin!!. Dont waste your time clowns!……its time to wake up from your long slumber and face with reality!. I’ve been following this website with interest and thought that it will make a diffrence but its not…time to move on idiots!!. What we need is a charismatic leader who is prepared to take on the Bull by the horns. We need to organise rallys an we display banners to show our dislike with the current regime!. The whole of Fiji and the world will be watching!.South Africa did it and succeed in topling an apatheid regime. People face abuse and death for their effort but victory was inevitable for the black South Africans. Doesn’t matter how convincing and genuine your findings or your comments it wont move a single hair of the current IG and for anybody for that matter!. Levu ga na vosa va qaseqasea ni yavu lamusona….sonalelevu!!.

Can you believe it? 200,000 Cane Farmers affected by Money the EU is holding back and which Chaudary had promised these Farmers that the money was already in the bag? Even during his stint as Minister of Finance for the IG he failed to ensure that these Cane Farmers are supplied with their 50,000 bags of fertilisers? I mean you gotta be a total bone head to cast a vote toward this loser-Chaudary?

Everybody is worried about the EU aid money for Sugar. I am, all my friends on the western side are, MCP is, even Vore the wise and powerful dictator, must be worried.

But what to do: that’s the question. I remember back in the 1970s when there was an impasse between the Alliance and the NFP about proceedings in Parliament. The Speaker, the late RD Patel if my memory serves me correctly, adjourned the House sine die, meaning without any day for meeting again, despite the wishes of the Alliance
Government who had the majority to rule hat the house should continue its session. Ratu Mara was overseas at the time and returned to this mess.

The way out of this mess was said to come to Ratu Mara in a dream. He designed a series of motions that would save face for everyone ;

and allow the house to put itself in order again. And apparently it worked. Parliament got on with its business and the country was able to, if you’ll pardon the expression, move forward.

How is this relevant you ask? Well I think I’ve found a way out of the EU aid mess. It came to me in a dream I had about Ratu Mara’s dream.

If an election is held, we can safeguard the EU aid funds (all $350 million of them). While we’re holding the election we can AT THE SAME TIME have a referendum on the Charter. Everyone has heard of it. Most people have had an opportunity to read it in a language
they understand. Never has any document been more ready to put to the people.

Parties could take their stand on the document. Any party that opposed the charter while the majority of the people supported it would suffer at the polls. Alternatively, if most people don’t support the charter, parties that support it would suffer at the polls. But the
most important thing would be for ALL parties to agree to abide by the result. If the majority of the people support the charter, all parties would vote to make it a part of the constitution.

So let’s go. What are we waiting for? Frank, John Samy, Akuila Yabaki and everyone who loves the Charter and has confidence in the support it has with the people can have no doubts that it will get up. But we would also have the election that will guarantee the
money for our sugar farmers. Who could be against this? If the charter is supported the newly elected members of parliament would be honour bound to pass it as an amendment to the constitution.